Albanians in Macedonia protest over arrests

May 11, 2012|Reuters

* Government accused of insulting Islam after murders

* "Radical Islamists" blamed for killings, 20 arrested

* Ethnic tensions bubbling for months

By Kole Casule

SKOPJE, May 11 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Albanians inMacedonia took to the streets after Muslim prayers on Friday,accusing the government of insulting their faith by blaming"radical Islamists" for the murder of five men at a lake nearSkopje.

The killings of the Macedonian men in mid-April, and theensuing police operation, have ratcheted up ethnic tensions inthe impoverished Balkan country, where at least a quarter of the2 million people are ethnic Albanians.

On May 1, 20 people, mainly ethnic Albanians, were arrestedin dawn raids by 800 police officers on homes in the capitalSkopje and surrounding villages. The government described themas "followers of radical Islam".

Five of those arrested were accused of the lakeside killingsand charged with terrorism.

They chanted "Muslims are not terrorists!" and "I'm aMuslim, not a terrorist!"

Leaflets handed out condemned the lakeside killings and saidAlbanians sympathised with the victims' relatives. But they saidthe police operation, including the arrest of several women, was"an insult made by the Macedonian government against the MuslimAlbanian people, an insult against their religious feelings".

The protest was organised through social media, anddemonstrations were expected in other towns across the country.Most Albanians in Macedonia are Muslims who practise a moderateform of Islam.

The killing of the five men, shot at close range by morethan one gunman, followed a bout of communal violence betweenMacedonian and Albanian mobs, and raised fears of wider unrest.

The former Yugoslav republic narrowly avoided civil war in2001 when government forces clashed with ethnic Albanianguerrillas demanding greater rights and representation for theAlbanian minority.

Using the carrot of closer ties with the European Union andNATO, Western diplomacy halted the fighting and the guerrillasentered government.

But integration has been slow and the two communities stilllive largely separate lives.